


Night in the Church, Again

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [49]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24020686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Summary: Reynir tells of the night in the church.
Series: Mikkel's Story [49]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Kudos: 14





	Night in the Church, Again

They walked together, Reynir to Mikkel's left, Sigrun to his right. It was not the recommended configuration for travelling through grossling country, but the sun shone bright and it was bitterly cold. Very few grosslings would be out and about in this, and Mikkel was reluctant to make Sigrun serve as rear guard.

“How are you?” he asked, his breath a cloud.

“I'm fine, don't fuss over me!” Then, soberly, “I'm not 100%. Not even 50%, really, but better. And I can shoot any troll that shows its stinking face!”

“So do you feel the … wound … remains bandaged up?”

“Yeah, I do. I just feel like I always do when I've been hurt bad and have to heal up. Forget that. What happened last night?”

“You …”

“Ask _him!_ ”

> I told you about the first dream, the vision, of the church and the priestess lady. Onni came with me, and she gave us cake … she was so kind. She said she could lead lost souls to the afterlife, but she didn't remember where she was or even who she was. I knew I'd just have to find her.
> 
> And then there was the second dream, the second vision. It was the night before … before … Tuuri … 
> 
> Uh … 
> 
> Okay, I'm okay. In the vision, I saw this weird track in the snow, with footprints around it. I didn't know what it was, then, but the dog, my dream-dog, ran alongside it for a while and then stopped and turned to the side. And he told me he'd helped, and he disappeared and so did I and the vision ended.
> 
> I didn't know what any of that meant.
> 
> So then we started walking, and the ghosts were close, very close. It was only the runes on the tent that kept them away, and at night they caught up to us and they … spoke to me. They threatened me. They told me they would take everyone around me … 
> 
> I thought if they took me then they'd leave my family, my friends, alone. I thought they'd leave you two alone. But I knew you'd never let me stay behind for them to take and so I … I thought if I could run away into the woods, then you'd have to leave me. I didn't think you'd ever leave Sigrun to follow me! Only, by myself in the woods, the grosslings might get me first, and then the ghosts would take you anyway. So I, I was trying to find a way to get away from you and still be safe. From grosslings, for long enough.
> 
> And then I saw the dog's track. I didn't recognize it just then, and Sigrun said there might be a wolf, so I thought I had to stay with you.
> 
> You didn't see, because you were watching for grosslings, but the dog turned away and the track just … stopped. Like the dog had just disappeared! And then I remembered, and I knew what it was in the vision. The weird track was the wheelbarrow and the footprints were yours. And the dog's track, that was the dream-dog's track, right there in front of me!
> 
> He'd turned toward that opening in the forest, that old road, and the sun was glowing through it like it was … like it was welcoming me. I had to go there. I had to! I thought you'd just go on, take Sigrun to safety, and I – it didn't matter what happened to me after she led the ghosts away.
> 
> So I ran. And the church was like I remembered it, sort of, only there were all those skeletons! Ugh! And then she … spoke to me. I opened the door and she was there.
> 
> Oh, Mikkel! It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen! That sweet, kind, old lady turned into that _thing_ and, and, oh, the worst of it was that there was enough left of her face that I _recognized_ her. And she knew me, even then, even like _that …_
> 
> I'm okay. Really. It's just, just, thinking of her like that, all those years … 
> 
> And then you came, and Sigrun.
> 
> Oh, I don't care about that. Of course you were angry. You didn't know. You _couldn't_ know.
> 
> And then I lay down to sleep because that's the only way I can talk to her, and she was there! She was herself, not a “ghastly abomination” like she said. And see, they had the cure – I mean, what they thought was a cure – but she didn't take it because they didn't have enough and she didn't think she was _worthy_ of it! She! Who waited so long and managed to still be herself even like … _that!_
> 
> She told me to say goodbye for her to Onni, because we wouldn't meet again after that night. She knew already what would happen, I guess. And she was happy about it. She said it was a very good thing.
> 
> And then we waited. She told me to hide, stay away from the ghosts, and I did. They came …
> 
> The leader was … he'd turned himself into something like the ghost of Sleipnir. He had a horse's head – or skull, I mean – and all those legs but they all had _hands!_ The others were mostly just like shadows of people. He – he shrieked at her – he grew until he was as big as the church and he shrieked at her – he said they were abandoned and suffering and they would make the _world_ suffer with them. So you were right not to leave me for them. Even if they'd taken me, they would have gone on and taken you too and everyone, everyone!
> 
> It's so terrible that they released the cure because they wanted to spare people suffering and maybe becoming trolls, they wanted people to just die in peace, only they _didn't_ , they just stayed and stayed and stayed as ghosts! All those years … 
> 
> And she, she wasn't afraid at all, she welcomed them! He couldn't touch her and she just stood before him, so small and so brave! And she asked him, that terrible thing, if he wasn't tired. Because she _was_ tired, from waiting all those years for them. And he – he was tired too. They all were. And they … they stopped being horrible shades, he stopped being a monster of bones and shadows, and they became … just little lambs! Just little lambs like play in the fields at home!
> 
> She told them they could go home, into the light that was there on the altar. And they went into it.
> 
> The dream-dog came to me, and he said this was a sacred thing, a sacred place, for the dead and not for me, so he led me out a side door and up a hill, and we watched them go up the light and into … wherever their afterlife is. And they were sorry, they were sorry for the terrible things they'd done. They told me so.
> 
> There were thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands – I don't know. They must have been every ghost in Denmark.
> 
> And she was the last. She said goodbye as she went. She remembered who she was.
> 
> Her name was Anne.


End file.
